Contract Commercial Lead

Cognizant’s commercial contracts are an integral component of client relationships. Ideally, contracts reflect a shared understanding of the value Cognizant delivers to clients as well as serving as a blueprint for delivery success and protecting the company against commercial and legal risks. The objective of the CLRM program is to help ensure Cognizant’s client contracts embody these aims, supporting all verticals and business units across the organization with the objective to improve financial/ operational performance and minimize/ mitigate risk at each stage of the contract lifecycle (contract creation, execution, and analysis).

**Summary of Role**
In this client-facing role, we are looking for an experienced Senior Contract Commercial Manager to serve as the point of contact for specified key client/s in respect of all contract related matters, and to provide ad hoc contract management support to other accounts and on CLRM program initiatives. The role includes being responsible for a BU portfolio and may include supervising and growing a small team of offshore or locally based contract managers.
We are looking for confident and intellectually curious people to join the team. To succeed here, the individual needs to be a self-starter with an entrepreneurial mindset who is willing to try new ways of doing things, initiate and drive outcomes taking responsibility and accountability. The individual will be comfortable relying on his or her experience and judgment to navigate ambiguity and adapt to changing circumstances. A savvy communicator with great people skills, he or she is a team player who will be comfortable building relationships with a geographically dispersed team and with stakeholders in other functions and embraces opportunities to shape the future.

**Key Responsibilities**:

- Proactively contribute commercial and contract thought leadership to support the engagement / CLRM leadership in their strategic planning and engagement with the client and on CLRM initiatives.
- Point of contact for your engagement team and client/s on all contractual matters, including contract performance/ compliance, SOWs, MSA Amendments, contractual queries, commercial issues and escalations and lead coordinating inputs from internal stakeholders and client closure.
- Chair and/or facilitate contract related governance meetings with the client’s business stakeholders and sourcing / procurement team and oversee creation of contractual reporting to the client.
- Commercial shaping, drafting and negotiating of various forms of complex contractual documents, coordinating with relevant SMEs as appropriate and undertaking necessary escalations. Work with SMEs to prepare pragmatic responses/ mark ups to client drafts, collaborate with leadership in setting negotiation strategy and lead the negotiation team to execute on the strategy.
- Raise contract awareness and commercial acumen within the sales/ delivery team, including creation of guidance, templates and other materials on contract commercial mgmt best practices.
- Provide advice and guidance on the contract obligations, drive and track all party’s compliance.
- Liaise with procurement and engagement team to negotiate / manage subcontractor contracts.
- Work with engagement leadership, sales /delivery team, other internal SMEs and the client to identify risks and broker resolutions to any challenges, disagreements and escalations that arise.
- Responsible for the maintenance of a full set of contractual records, including contract documents, key contract-related correspondence, logs, status reports and optimized use of related toolsets.
- Oversee offshore CLRM support and may lead and grow a team of contract managers on other engagements.

**Core capabilities**:

- Deep practical experience of contract management in the IT and/or business services market for Singapore Public Sector client base with a detailed understanding of key legal/ commercial principles and obligations found in complex managed services, transformation and professional services contracts.
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with strong executive presence capabilities. Ability to read, write in Chinese language is an advantage
- Proven ability to build strategic relationships internally /with client whilst working virtually.
- Flexible, team player able to adapt your thinking / approach and with ability to balance process, compliance and risk management activities while ensuring the business is successful.
- Nuanced and sophisticated client-facing skills, including ability to identify and negotiate a fair deal and manage difficult/ tense situations.
- Strong analytical skills, with demonstrable fluency in deal economics, leveraging commercial levers. Familiarity with P&L management/ reporting would be an advantage.
- Technologically minded, with experience in using and implementing contract management platforms, and in development of contracting processes/proced